Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-11-11
TIE HAREM.
.o5ou, Who Ciotn. That Ie IL Beme.
''' fciat to the Family.
saturday Review.l

0'" fciat to the Family.
saturday Review.l
notion seems generally prevalent
Europe that if only the harem doors
-. opened rush for liberty would
mmediately take place, and many are
h . svmpathies wasted on the supposed
.;soners of the Mohammedan mar
;ars t;e In reality both men and wo-
,an consider their state far superior
that of Europeans. The man argues
hus. "You are slave from the mo-
'snt YOU marry. You cannot even
ave her alone for few hours without
living an account of yourself. Such
tates of things is unbearable to me.
90 where I like and my wife goes
rbere she likes. I pay my servants to
ook after her and am sure she is not
B;rting with other men when I am not
~ her side. You are never sure of
his" etc. This is the line OF argu-
hent. The woman says, "NIy religion
orbids me to look upon other men but
nv husband. Ill changed my religion,
perhaps should like to mix up with
lyerv fellow came across; but as long
I am Mohammedan 1 detest the
thought of it. I cover my face from
he sight of the world, as your women
over their bodies As to being watched
nd guarded, it is compliment which
hows how much my husband cares for
he. If lie were to leave me to do as I
liked, I should know he did not care
or me, and should feel deeply insulted. {"
is difficult for the Western mind fully
grasp the immense gulf between our
leas and theirs. Their reasoning is
allacious and almost ridiculous from
ur standpoint, but it is good enough
rom theirs. And therefore as long as
be Mahommedan religion lasts, so long
ill the harem exist. And it's exist
nee is, on the whole, happy and con-
pnted one, in spite of all the reasoning
rhch may be brought to show that it
ught to be miserable. Centuries of
cmmunion and contact with Europeans
bay possibly change the ideas born and
nltivate in the harem, but there is as
ct no sign whatever of such change.
p to the present no appreciable diff
Prance is noticeable in the domestic
onomy Of the Mcslem. The wells of
be ladies may he little finer and more
pIz,y, and their dresses and equipage
lore utter the European model, but
lat IS all. Here and there IN instance
ny occur of an attempt to throw off
be letters Of Mahommedan custom,
bit it always meets with instant sup
fession, and cannot be taken as sign
any deep-seated rebellious spirit.
urface alterations are creeping into
be harem, but they are merely in
etails of home management, and do
OF amount to transgressions of the
hcred law. The men who go out and
bingle in foreign society and the lady
European visitors who enter the harem
18th import scraps of new fashions and
stes. Knives and forks are now gen.
rally admitted to be preferable to
myers, and vases of flowers, with hand
pine engravings and photographs, are
isposed with straining after pretti-
ess in the reception rooms of the best
puses. The piano is usurping the
lace OF the either, and European music
isputes favor with the threnetic minor
eys of Eastern melody. These are
billy triAes, but they mark an awaken
be. But, as must always happen in
Fmilar transformations, the early re-
ults are far from satisfactory. They
hereby bring about a heterogeneous
pixture of barbarism and civilization,
Flich clash instead of harmonizing;
enseless luxury and repulsive slovenli-
ess elbow each other; reckless ex-
Favagance produce nothing but gaudy
isplay. The great question is, whether
bis advance will be progressive or will
70 forced to stop short before the bar
creed, leaving the harem the worse
pr its meretricious borrowings from
European culture, and mono the better
pr its backslidings from primitive ira
itions. The verdict will ultimately
with the men and not with the wo-
ben, and time alone con decide whether
lie harem will live and die with the
lahommedan race or whether the race
pill abolish the harem before its disap-
|earance. The institution of the harem
however, so inseparably part, and
ne of the principal parts, of the faith
|hat it seems hard to imagine its elimi-
(ations as long as Moslems exists.